Terrible hum when TV is on in room

[Larry Mal]

No, just make sure you get the copper tape that has the conductive adhesive backing to it.

Like this

[eyemack]

Thanks. yes, that's the one I bought. I was just wondering if there was any soldering going on to remove the pickguard and all pots/switches etc.

[alexpigment]

Thanks. yes, that's the one I bought. I was just wondering if there was any soldering going on to remove the pickguard and all pots/switches etc.

Based on the wiring diagram there should currently be 1 soldered point that needs to be removed. The wire that goes from the bridge (though a hole in the body) to the tone pot (normally it would be the volume pot) will need to be removed to allow you to remove the pickguard from the body.

Now, if the concern is that you don't have a soldering iron, I don't personally think this is the end of the world. You can basically snip that wire off the pot (cleanly). When you reinstall everything, just put some of its exposed wire (you'll need to strip it a little bit) under that grounding ring that screws into the body, as the body will now be covered in shielding tape and therefore will serve as a place to ground. By doing that, you've now made it possible to take the whole pickguard on/off without soldering.

https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Orig ... master.pdf

[eyemack]

Thanks again. It's not the lack of soldering iron, it's the total lack of soldering skill that worries me!
Another thing, I seem to remember that when I lifted the pickguard off a year or so ago, I had real trouble in doing that as on the Am Pro II, part of the pickguard sits under the neck and I couldn't dislodge it (for reasons I can't remember).

[alexpigment]

Ah yes, the dreaded 22-fret neck problem It's been so long since I've run into that - and never on a Jazzmaster - that I completely didn't think about that being the case on the AmPro. A lot of times it's really just about the pickguard being stuck on one/both of the pickups, so you might be able to get away with screwing the pickups down and lifting the pickguard upward and away from the neck. Others can chime in here though, because I may be missing an easy way to do this without removing the neck.

[GilmourD]

Quick question guys, does this involve soldering?

Nope! It's just making sure you get strips of tape in the right place, it actually sticks (hence the dowel for pressing it down), and has complete coverage.

The important thing is making sure whatever shielding tape you got has conductive adhesive so that way when the pieces overlap each other it becomes one large copper conductor.

In the pic I posted, that was my very first job, but the only one I ever took a pic of. LOL You'll notice that the tape comes up over the edges just a little bit but also extends to cover screw holes. I also shield the back of pickguards, if they're not already, and doing so connects them.

I also pop out one or both thimbles and run a strip of tape into the hole. You'll never see it because it's under the pickguard and bridge.

[eyemack]

So, I've started and taken off the pickguard. I did the 'capo on 12th fret and remove trem bar mech' trick so I didn't have to remove the strings.
Now, after I took up the pickguard, I noticed a wire in the trem cavity and I don't know what that was connected to!
Can someone please tell me?
Thanks.
(How do I attach an image here?)

[Larry Mal]

So, I've started and taken off the pickguard. I did the 'capo on 12th fret and remove trem bar mech' trick so I didn't have to remove the strings.
Now, after I took up the pickguard, I noticed a wire in the trem cavity and I don't know what that was connected to!
Can someone please tell me?
Thanks.
(How do I attach an image here?)

Did you remove the ground wire already? I was going to suggest that you don't really need to do that, you can probably just move the whole pickguard up and out of the way as you put in the copper tape.

The wire in the tremolo cavity is where the ground wire terminates. The tremolo clamps it down and the ground runs to the unit itself.

Use Imgur to post images.

[eyemack]

Thanks. No, I didn't remove anything yet. Seems to be workable without cutting anything.
The ground wire in the trem cavity. So, how do I reconnect that when I am putting the trem mechanism back on?
Can't seem to get this image to show, but here is the link https://imgur.com/a/zHoPKGN

[alexpigment]

I didn't realize they ground to the tremolo (rather than the bridge thimble) on the AmPro II. That means no soldering is required. Do you see the little indentation in the wood near the top right screw for the tremolo? That's where the wire went; it's just held in place by the trem. So you can easily just slide that wire out and reinsert it when you're ready to put the thing back together.

[Larry Mal]

Thanks. No, I didn't remove anything yet. Seems to be workable without cutting anything.
The ground wire in the trem cavity. So, how do I reconnect that when I am putting the trem mechanism back on?
Can't seem to get this image to show, but here is the link https://imgur.com/a/zHoPKGN

No need to really reconnect it, just clamp the wire down with the unit itself, as long as the two are in contact, the ground connection is made and the unwanted signal will terminate there.

[eyemack]

Thanks guys. I'm not sure what you mean though. I have the wire that obviously came off somewhere on the trem mech, but not sure where it came from or what to do with it. I can see the hole for it, but not sure what to do with the end!
When you say 'just held in place', how?
'Clamp the wire down'? How?
Sorry, being a bit slow here!

[alexpigment]

If you take a look at your picture (from imgur), you'll see that there are 5 screw holes in the body for the trem - two in the back (rear), two in the middle on either side, and two in the front (toward the neck). The front right screw hold has an indentation in the wood. The wire was most likely sitting right there. You can probably put a tiny bit of the exposed wire in the screw hole itself to anchor it. Hopefully that clears things up.

[eyemack]

Got it! Thanks.
If that wire was not connected, would it have previously caused the hum? Pretty sure I didn’t notice it when I took the trem mech out to tighten the bar stiffness adjustment a few months ago.

[alexpigment]

Unless it’s redundantly grounded at the bridge, then it wouldn’t make any sense for the hum to go away when touching the strings. In other words, I think it was ‘connected’ to the trem based on your description of the problem.